In the ACC, “third-tier rights” consist of select (not all) women’s basketball, baseball and Olympic sports events (volleyball, soccer, track & field, softball, etc). ESPN (the ACC’s first and second-tier rights holder) is allowed to broadcast every ACC sporting event it chooses from the ACC football championship game on down to Florida State’s women’s soccer game vs. Stetson – if it wanted to. All games ESPN does not broadcast – the vast majority of women’s basketball, baseball and Olympic sports events – revert back to the individual schools to do with what they choose. Clemson, as an example, sells some of its third-tier baseball games to the regional sports network CSS.
In the Big 12, “third tier rights” consist of all those select women’s basketball, baseball and Olympic sports games as well as one select football game per season (the least desirable one) and a few select men’s basketball games (also, the least desirable ones). ESPN owns the Big 12 first-tier rights while Fox has its second-tier and the individual schools, the third.
Adding to the confusion is that many, but not all, people consider coaches’ shows, radio broadcast rights, and internet streaming rights to be “third-tier rights.” All ACC and Big 12 schools have full individual ownership over those rights, however Pac-12 schools granted those rights back to their conference. (According to the Orlando Sentinel and Tallahassee Democrat, FSU presently makes roughly $6.5 million per year from this inventory and there’s no reason to believe that would change in the Big 12.)
This is where the complaints from those Florida State people who gripe about the shortcomings of the ACC’s TV contract relative to the Big 12’s TV deal in the way it handles third-tier rights fall apart: Oklahoma and Texas both have strong TV deals for their third-tier media rights WITHOUT needing to include as an absolute necessity a football game to seal the relationships.
Does FSU have a football game to provide a TV network in a third-tier media rights deal? No. Does FSU need a football game to provide a TV network in a third-tier media rights deal? Oklahoma didn’t. So what’s preventing FSU from landing a similar deal, is it the ACC or FSU’s lack of aggression, hustle, creativity, brand power and relationships in pitching its properties to TV networks?
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"I’ll bottom line this for those of you who think FSU should dump the ACC for the Big 12 because the Big 12 would allow the Noles to reap huge profits from their third-tier rights. If FSU left the ACC for the Big 12 the only additional athletic inventory it would have to offer a TV network is its worst football game and three or four additional men’s basketball games. How much money do you think the Seminoles stand to gain from the ability to sell their football game vs. Savannah State and men’s basketball games against Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Georgia Southwestern, Jacksonville, and UNC-Greensboro?"
http://dev.chuckoliver.net/2012/05/third-tier-rights-defined-perspective-on-their-value/
